Last week I mentioned it was time for me to give PPC another try. Several people left comments with advice but James Lee sent me “The Ultimate Guide to Google Adwords” by Perry Marshall. It came in the mail last Friday and I’ve already read it. It’s an easy read, especially if you have any experience with AdWords, but it’s still worth reading if you have any interest in PPC. I learned a few new things and it helped me remember many things I had forgotten. (Since I read Financial Freedom, I’ve been praying for wisdom and it unexpectedly arrives in the mail…very interesting)
One of the examples in the book cited the Wright Brothers & Samuel Pierpont Langley in their quest to make aviation history. Have you ever heard of Samuel Pierpont Langley? I read something about him a few years ago but I had forgotten about him. He was an engineer & inventor who failed miserably in his efforts to make a plane fly but you can’t knock him for trying.
One of the big differences was in the approaches taken. Langley thought if he put a big enough motor on the plane it would fly, so he focused all his efforts on creating a powerful engine. His plane never got off the ground on either attempt and he was publicly ridiculed by the press and criticized by Congress for wasting tax dollars. He died a few years later and nobody remembers him.
The Wright brothers took a very different approach. They focused on building a glider that would fly without an engine. Only after years of testing when the glider was flying on its own did they commission a bicycle shop machinist to build a small motor for it. Eight days after Langley’s second failure, the Wright brothers changed history and became famous when their plane flew at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.
So what in the world does any of this have to do with PPC? Plenty. Keeping this example in mind, think of the search engine as the motor and your website as the glider. If your website can’t “fly” on it’s own (i.e. convert traffic to leads and sales), then it’s pointless to add a motor. You’ll be wasting money. You’ll crash & burn like Langley.
On the other hand, if your website can convert traffic into leads and sales, then adding PPC as the motor to drive tons of traffic to your site can explode your business. This sounds simple but I wonder how many people are wasting money using PPC to drive traffic to websites that can’t “fly” on their own. Then they compound the problem by blaming PPC when the real problem is their own website.
So before you add a motor to your website, make sure it can fly on it’s own. Harness the motor at first and only drive a little traffic to your website as a test. That will give you a chance to test and improve your website’s conversion. When you’re sure the site converts traffic into leads and sales, then you can feel comfortable paying for more traffic to the site. PPC is powerful but it won’t magically transform a crappy website into a money maker.
Here’s another good AdWords resource by Kirt Christensen: AdWords Science. It’s a DVD of a 2-hour presentation Kirt did on AdWords. It’s free. You only need to pay for shipping & handling.
Tags: Monetization, Traffic
Popularity: 28% [?]
3 Comments
Robert, I fully agree taking small steps with PPC to get your conversion up is the best approach. Then when your sales copy is converting you can open up PPC a bit.
PPC truly levels the playing field, but you hear so many bad things about PPC due to people doing exactly what you described.
Keep up the good work. Thanks to your book reviews I do not have to read anymore…. LOL!
[Evan,
There's only so much time in a day. It's might not be even possible to read all the good books out there. I like book reviews myself since I don't have time to read all the books I'd like to read.
Robert]
Robert,
That’s a really good analogy. Even huge planes like a 747 will glide a little. It takes the deep pockets of the government to make a fighter plane fly – I don’t think they glide to well, small wings and big, heavy jet engines. If the engine cuts out, it’s probably time to hit the eject button: not try to ride it down and land. A billion dollar plane that won’t glide is not commercially viable; neither is selling a $100 product that costs you $150 to sell with PPC ads!
Take care,
Fred
But Fred, a 747 was built to survive engines off - and that helps the pilot keep the people that pay alive. The glide is a good business decision.
A fighter does not need the glide, they are not out there to make money.
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